Government discussing plans to allow more foreigners to work as housekeepers

Economy

Published: 27 May. 2023, 07:00 Updated: 27 May. 2023, 14:52

Government discussing plans to allow more foreigners to work as housekeepers

[SHUTTERSTOCK]

The government plans to start a pilot program allowing more foreigners to work as housekeepers in Korea in the second half of the year. It expects the program to help young parents continue with their careers and contribute to recovering the country's low birth rate.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor held an open forum on foreign housekeepers at the Royal Hotel Seoul in central Seoul on Thursday to discuss the issue and the policy. Officials from the Labor Ministry, experts on labor policy and heads of labor organizations attended the session, which was also opened to the public.

In Korea, only ethnic Koreans or spouses of permanent residents can be hired as housekeepers, according to the ministry. These people specifically hold: F-2 (spouse of permanent resident), F-4 (overseas Korean), F-5 (permanent resident), F-6 (marriage migrant) and H-2 (work and visit) visas.

The government expects such change to bring relief to Korean women facing parental career disruptions, cushion the tumbling birth rate and increase the number of housekeepers for household with working couples and older adults.

The number of newborn babies in March stood at 21,138, down 8.1 percent on year, according to Statistics Korea. It was the lowest March number since the agency began compiling monthly data in 1981 and the 88th consecutive month that saw a decline.

“Considering this is a first-ever attempt to add foreigners into the housekeeping labor force, we will comprehensively review overseas examples, the status of the labor market and public opinion before implementing the change,” said Lee Sang-im, director of foreign workforce at the Labor Ministry, who gave a presentation during the labor forum.

The ministry is surveying appropriate hiring methods with respect to the conditions here and plans to test out the measure first with [nationals of] countries who are easier for employers to communicate with, Lee added.

“Work experience, expertise, age, language ability and criminal record will be checked [...] and a concrete implementation method will be determined upon a thorough analysis of various sectors — cleaning, nursing and childcare — and public opinion poll,” the director said.

One method the ministry is eyeing is expanding the E-9 non-professional visa criteria to include housekeepers on top of the construction, manufacturing and agro-fisheries workforce. A total of 110,000 E-9 visas will be issued to foreigners this year, up 41,000 from the previous year. Of the 110,000 non-professional visas, 1,000 are allotted for the service industry and 10,000 will be issued to sectors that need replenishment.

Experts called for guardrail provisions to prevent potential human rights abuses.

“Japan, which began [hiring foreign housekeepers] relatively recently, adopted global-level standards on labor human rights to ban live-in housekeeping and wage discrimination between foreigners and locals,” said Cho Hyuk-jin, a researcher at Korea Labor Institute, during a debate session as part of Thursday’s forum. Japan signed economic partnership agreements with Indonesia in 2008, the Philippines in 2009 and Vietnam in 2014 to allow foreigners to work as care workers at hospitals and nursing facilities.

Institutional hiring is advised over private hiring, according to Cho.

“The government will extensively listen to opinions from the field in the preliminary rounds amid rising public awareness on foreign housekeepers,” Deputy Labor Minister of Planning and Coordination Park Jong-pil said. “The ministry will give an overall review of employing foreign housekeepers in line with the country’s actualities.”

BY NA SANG-HYUN, SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]